Awesome / Fruits Basket

Anime

• In the last episode of the anime, after Tohru, exhausted and terrified, has nevertheless embraced Kyo after seeing his monstrous true form and he has become a cat again, she walks back to the house with cat-Kyo in her arms. Kazuma, in full martial-arts regalia, sees her as she approaches and does that graceful Japanese, one-hand-on-the-ground bow of respect to a superior. Wow.

Manga

• In the early part of the story, Tohru briefly moves back in with her grandfather, who is now sharing his apartment with Tohru's paternal aunt and her kids. Her aunt's family makes it clear they see Tohru as something of a burden, until the aunt reveals she hired a private detective to do some checking on Tohru and knows she was staying with the Sohmas. The aunt's reasoning was that her son wants to be a police detective when he's older, and "Having a relative with a criminal record would jeopardize that." The aunt remembered what Kyoko was like when she was Tohru's age, figured "like mother, like daughter", and orders her not to do anything so "reckless" in the future if she wants to keep living with them. Her cousins pretty much call her a whore, and Tohru stands there, silently taking it, until her grandpa slaps the male cousin. The anime makes this better by removing the Cloudcuckoolander aspect of Tohru's grandfather.
  Grandpa: Tohru, I apologize. Please don't think too harshly of them. They're just disagreeable folks by nature.
  • This is followed by Yuki and Kyo coming to the apartment to take Tohru back home. Tohru's cousin figures out they're "the guys the little tramp was shacking up with". Yuki's response just leaves the aunt's family speechless: his tone and delivery makes it clear they better shut their mouths if they know what's good for them.
    Yuki: Don't you ever talk that way to Honda-san, you lowlife.
• Toward the end of the story, the curse breaks, and one by one, the spirits of the Zodiac animals leave their human hosts. The first animal to arrive at the feast, the rat, is the last to leave, and as Yuki breaks down in tears, the spirit of the rat turns and runs toward a pair of welcoming hands. The final panel is God, surrounded by his animals looking back and saying goodbye.
• Also, when Tohru finally turns the tables on Akito Sohma by offering her genuine love and friendship. Tohru, a simple schoolgirl without any self-defense training, is doing this towards a very unhinged Creepy Crossdresser who has crossed the Despair Event Horizon again, as a consequence is in the middle of a terrifying Villainous Breakdown and has a knife, which she just used to stab Kureno when he failed to get to her. Akito Sohma vs. Tohru Honda... Tohru Honda wins. Wow... just WOW.
• When Kyo's curse breaks he decides to make sure of it by ripping off the bracelet keeping his true form sealed scattering beads all over the floor.
  • Just before this: Tohru and Kyo finally hug - and Kyo doesn't change.
• Momiji, who is not a tough guy (to put it mildly) interposes himself between an angry Akito and Tohru despite knowing that Akito has on several occasions maimed those who defy her.
  • Then, when Akito starts punching him, Tohru herself intervenes, demanding that she stop and interposing herself between Akito and Momiji. Usually she's almost constitutionally incapable of asserting herself, but when it comes to a situation like this she doesn't so much as hesitate.
• In chapter 20, Akito comes to introduce himself - er, herself - to Tohru, and threatens Yuki. For the first time in the series, Tohru acts other than kind and sweet and is, considering her normal behavior, terribly impolite, pushing Akito away when she sees how distressed Yuki became.
• In the backstory, we have Katsuya saving Kyouko when she's thrown out of her home by her Abusive Parents. He had come to ask the Katsunumas for permission to marry her, walks in on them kicking their Broken Bird daughter out as corollary for all of their abuse — and he calmly gives them a very well-placed verbal lashing and rightfully points out their way of parenting (make zero mistakes or else you’re forever out of the family) is downright cruel and neglectful, before he offers Kyouko a place to call "home".
• Kyouko saving Uotani from the gang.
  • Earlier, before Tohru and Uotani properly became friends, Uotani was fleeing from some girls from a rival gang when she bumped into Tohru. Before Uotani even said a word to her, Tohru seemed to have realized what was going on, grabbed Uotani by the wrist, and ran toward home.
• The fact that Hiro's parents genuinely love him very much. We have seen the Sohma family suffer so much from their parents that it's so refreshing to see at least one example that Sohmas don't make terrible parents.
  • And what is Ritsu's mother Meshou, though? The woman's Prone to Tears but she does love Ritsu to death, and her short speech about how much she loves her son is made of win and sweet.
  • Even better, Hiro's parents did not get traumatized at all. She did not shun her son nor did she become overly protective. Satsuki is still very happy despite all the problems that inherently come from having a child possessed by the zodiacs (let alone Hiro's...unyielding personality). The crazy thing? She never hesitated. She didn't care that Hiro was a sheep at all. Even the other zodiacs couldn't help but call her an amazing mother.
• When Yuki's mother begins planning out his entire life for him without any consideration for his own opinions during his parent teacher interview, by extension unearthing his own feelings regarding his self-worth, Ayame bursts in and cuts her off completely in his usual Large Ham fashion. He then proceeds to continue the interview, completely unfazed by his mother's fury and calls her out on her treatment of her own son, remarking that she was exactly how he used to be and unable to see how important family should be. Eventually, his effortless rebuffing of all her outbursts pisses her off into leaving, thus leaving Yuki free to choose his own future.
  • Mayuko also deserves some credit for noticing Yuki's mother's behavior and trying to call her out on it.
• Tohru confronting Kyo's true form. While this scene is also in the anime, the manga version of it is more awesome in the fact that Tohru never went into a depressed state before Arisa and Uotani got her out of the funk and she never had Yuki's aid in confronting him. At the point where Tohru has to put up with the wretched stench coming from Kyo's form, which has made her vomit and all, she still pressed on and eventually caught up with him on her own. She also was able to calm him down despite the fear she had of confronting his true form and withstanding the pain of getting slashed in her shoulder when a distraught Kyo attempted to drive her away. A notable case of Badass Pacifist. This is finally adapted faithfully in the 2019 anime
• Rin taking the fall for Haru, even though it means she will get hurt again. Who says victims can't have honor?
• Komaki furiously chewing out Kakeru for telling Tohru to stop acting like she was the only one who deserved to be pitied after her mother Kyoko died, and that her grieving disgusted him.
  • Even better is that the reprimanding actually works, as Kakeru feels guilt for his actions immediately afterwards, and spends years kicking himself over it before he's able to give Tohru a proper apology.
• Similarly, Kisa standing up to Hiro after he was Innocently Insensitive to Tohru and stood by what he said. Only then does he feel remorse about once again letting Kisa down and realizing despite being kind, Tohru has some feelings deep down. For someone who was Bullied into Depression not too long ago, the young Tiger can unsheathe her claws verbally when she needs to.
• When the Prince Yuki Fan Club went to Saki’s house hoping to find her weakness so they can use it against her. Saki admit she knew the true reason they came. The Prince Yuki tried to justified their hatred toward Tohru and claiming how she’s acting like Yuki belongs to her instead of them. Saki’s brother Megumi give them a "The Reason You Suck" Speech saying how love isn’t a an excuse for their behavior. They can’t just force their feelings onto Yuki and take away his friends because he will come to hate them. Saying how love can be a blessing and curse at the same time and how love is putting someone else’s feelings before their own. For a young kid, those are wise words.

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